SAN FRANCISCO – Barry Bonds is the Giants, and yet, in so many ways, he is not even part of the team.

On a very good club, he is the great player. He stands out above all. And he also stands alone.

As the Giants prepare for a game, Bonds is more visitor than participant. He doesn’t stretch or play catch with teammates prior to batting practice. During BP, he takes his swings, but doesn’t shag flies.

Before the games, he sits by himself or chats with one of his myriad public-relations people, who defy major-league rules by being on the field. But Bonds hardly ever talks with a teammate.

When every other Giant starter is introduced to the baselines in the playoffs, they go down the row to shake hands with the support staff and back-ups. Bonds acknowledges just his manager and those who bat in front of him.

In the clubhouse, he has a block of three lockers, one for his batboy son Nikolai, who has own nameplate. The area is like a small clubhouse unto itself, with a TV for one, leather recliner and cement support essentially defining a boundary that Bonds glares and dares you to cross.

These are The Barry Rules, and they are tolerated because of what occurred in the fifth inning yesterday, when he tied NLCS Game 3 with a massive, three-run homer into McCovey Cove. In this bizarre world, might makes right.

He received a standing ovation from an adoring Pac Bell Park full house. He kissed Nikolai at home plate. He was greeted in the dugout by thankful teammates. It is only in these moments that he is both a giant of the game and a Giant.

But on this day, Bonds also was alone in impact. His homer was the only RBI hit for the wasteful, sloppy Giants in 15 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Thus, St. Louis won 5-4 to close within 2-1 in the NLCS.

Bonds’ fifth homer of these playoffs was the 21st into the Cove in Pac Bell’s three seasons. All the rest of the Giants have accounted for two.

That helps explain why a guy who is as much an island as nearby Alcatraz is stomached by his organization.

“I don’t think it is unusual in sports,” Giants GM Brian Sabean said of having a superstar with his own rules.

“A lot of guys go to a different drummer. We have to be conscious of Barry’s age and body and try to conserve him this time of year.”

Bonds, in one of his few comments during this series, said he was exhausted. He is 38. But that has nothing to do with his pattern.

Sabean conceded that this is how Bonds operates daily. Reporters who cover the team say that only occasionally does the slugger deviate and stretch, shag or show any kinship with teammates

“The kind of team we have is a veteran team,” Sabean said. “They’ve seen too much to be plagued by it.”

In a national magazine last year, Jeff Kent, hardly beloved in his own clubhouse, criticized Bonds for being so apart from the team. Mostly, though, Giant players abide The Barry Rules. And the organization already has made its four-year, $72 million deal with the devil, re-signing Bonds in the offseason.

“You have to be strong-minded and not overreact to Barry,” Sabean said. “Here, we think it is OK because of his work ethic [a strenuous workout program] and his ability to perform. It’s not a distraction to us.”